We love a good run sheet! Follow these tips to maximize Service Plans:
Use headers
Headers can be inserted into your service plans just like any other item. Unlike items, however, headers don’t count towards the service’s time constraints. They’re generally used to sort the different parts of your service (think worship, the sermon and announcements) into more obvious sections.
For more on how to construct Service Plans, look at this link.
Use notes
Notes can be attached to any song or item in a Service Plan. For songs, this is a great way to remind your band, during the service, of any changes you’ve made during practice. However, because your notes will mostly be read at-a-glance, make sure you keep them short and sweet.
For items like the announcements, you can put all of the announcements in a note, and the host can come on-stage and read the announcements from the LIVE service. (For more about Elvanto LIVE, go to this link.)
Notes can also be assigned to departments. Avoid boring people with information they don’t need to know by selecting which department the note is for. For example, ‘Bring out communion during this song’ is a note for your Hosting department; your Creative Ministries department doesn’t need to know this.
Use Songs – as much as you can
Personalizing the plan with your specific songs adds another dimension to your Service Plans. While it may seem daunting to add all of your church’s songs into Elvanto (it’s a breeze with the SongSelect integration), doing so makes it easier for your musicians to access.